Getting a ride at LAX? Your vehicle has moved

Big changes began Tuesday for passengers arriving at LAX who need a ride home, whether by taxi, ride-hailing service or private vehicles.

If you’re hoping to hail a taxi or service such as Uber or Lyft, you’ll need to go to an area called LAX-it (pronounced “L.A. exit”), east of Terminal 1 and close enough to Terminals 1 and 2 to walk. Passengers arriving at other terminals can take a shuttle to the waiting area.

That’s where the ride-hailing services and taxis will be to pick you up and get you home.

The idea is to reduce clogging in an area already crowded with drivers and construction projects. LAX is amid a $14-billion modernization project that ultimately will include a people mover that will take passengers to and from the airport. It is expected to be completed in 2023.

The change was not without its difficulties, prompting LAX to apologize for an “unacceptable level of service.” Some passengers on Wednesday evening “experienced excessive wait times at LAX-it, exceeding 45 minutes at its peak, for some ride app users,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, passengers arriving at LAX who are being picked up by private vehicle at the arrival level (just outside the baggage carousels that deliver checked items) will no longer be allowed to enter that vehicle from the inner lane of the lower level.

Instead they must cross to the outer circle, known as the “outer median lane.” The inner circle is for LAX shuttles, including those vehicles that will take passengers to LAX-it.

Drop-offs are still allowed on departures on the upper level.